//------------------------------// // Jokers // Story: Little Glimpses // by Skijarama //------------------------------// A little over a month has passed since Fluttershy’s visit to Canterlot. Since then, summer officially came to an end and preparations are underway to move Equestria into winter. The transitionary period of autumn is moving along at a solid pace and, much to the delight of many a candy-crazed foal across the country, Nightmare Night is swiftly approaching. Already, ponies are setting up their decorations; carving jack-o-lanterns, smothering the fronts of their homes in mock spider webs, hiding magical contraptions to create fog and play scary sounds. Twilight is eagerly awaiting the holiday, both for what it represents and, albeit to a lesser degree, the candy. Rainbow Dash can barely contain her excitement at the prospect of cutting loose and getting in some pranking. It’s going to be an interesting holiday.     “Two days left ‘til Nightmare Night, Twilight!” Rainbow squealed in excitement, hovering over the lavender filly who currently had her nose in an adventure novel help up by her magic, and rubbing her hooves together ecstatically. “Aren’t you excited? Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!”     Twilight sighed and glanced up from the new Daring Do book at Rainbow with a skeptical frown on her face. “You know, Rainbow, pranking ponies isn’t exactly commonplace here in Canterlot. A lot of the ponies here are, shall we say, snobbish. They rarely have a sense of humor that is… oh, what’s a good word… compatible with that of a prankster.”     “Oh, whatever,” Rainbow dismissed with a small, sadistic grin splitting her face. She turned away from Twilight and tapped her hooves together like a master schemer. “If anything, since nopony here pranks them here, I’ll get even bigger rises out of my victims!” an evil cackle slipped out of her.     Twilight rolled her eyes at the excited princess before her expression flattened and she returned to her book. “Or maybe it’s because they either don’t react at all, or if they do it’s supremely underwhelming.”     “And what would you know? You haven’t pranked somepony in this city once, I bet.” Rainbow challenged with an annoyed look crossing her face. Twilight was being such a killjoy, Nothing unusual there, but this was about pranking they were talking about!     Twilight flicked a glance at Rainbow before lifting her book just slightly in her magic in an effort to hide the small red tint coming to her cheeks. “N-not true.” she mumbled out, hoping that Rainbow would just leave it at that.     No such luck, sadly. Rainbow took near instant note of Twilight’s suddenly defensive response, her sadistic smirk returning in full force. She slowly drifted until she was hovering directly over Twilight before speaking. “Oooooh~? Is that right? Well, then, I don’t suppose you’d mind, oh. I dunno, telling me how it went?”     Twilight buried her face deeper into her book, the red tint on her cheeks magnifying many times over. Her ears fell flat against her head. “It went… poorly.”     “Who’d you prank?” Rainbow pressed, poking Twilight in the shoulder curiously.     Twilight flinched away from the contact before using the spine of her book to lightly smack Rainbow on the nose, making her back out of Twilight’s personal space. “I’d rather not say anything else.” She then said with a grimace.     Rainbow snorted in disappointment before setting back down on the ground. She looked into Twilight’s defensive book for several moments before a competitive smile gradually broke out on her muzzle. “Okay, Twi. Let’s make a deal: Race me, on hoof, to the exit of the private rooms from the far wall. If I win, you tell me the juicy story. If you win, you can keep it to yourself. Sound fair?”     Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash incredulously, lowering her book and meeting the other filly’s gaze. “You’re joking, right? You and I both know that I can’t beat you in a race even when you’re already worn out. That’s hardly a fair bet.”     Rainbow rolled her eyes at Twilight before grinning provocatively. “Well, yeah - when I have my wings at the ready. Did you miss the part about the race being on hoof?”     “No, I didn’t.” Twilight countered flatly, turning to the next page in her book. “I simply know that you are in much better physical shape than I am. You take long flights every day and you attend the best flight school in Canterlot. On hoof or not I am not your physical equal. I would lose. It’s a lopsided deal and so I refuse.”     Rainbow puffed out a breath in discontent, sitting down on her haunches and crossing her forelegs. “Hmph. Killjoy.”     “That’s my nickname - that you gave me, I might add. Don’t wear it out.” Twilight quipped with a small smile forming on her face. As obnoxious as Rainbow could be, Twilight did find it entertaining to have these little jesting matches every once in awhile. Kept her on her hooves, so to speak.     Rainbow huffed before buzzing back into the air. “Alright, well, I’m gonna head back to my room. Celestia said she’d help me finish off my costume for Nightmare Night and she should be getting out of court any minute. I’ll catch ya later, alright?”     “Alright, Rainbow. Have fun!” Twilight replied with a friendly smile before waving while Dash zipped down the corridor and out of view. She then shook her head with a small chuckle slipping out of her. “That pony… she’s got to be the most unusual Princess that Equestria has ever had.”     Some ten minutes came and went in silence for Rainbow Dash while she waited. She spent that time making sure her Wonderbolts posters were straightened out and then examined her costume, making sure everything was where it needed to be. She was going to be dressing up as a quadrupedal mass of snakes. Extra spooky she had proclaimed. The main body of the costume was made up of a simple jumpsuit. Across the forward half of the suit Rainbow and Celestia had previously attached numerous of the floppy toy snakes one could find in a toy stores, making use of various materials to hold it to the jumpsuit. There were paints set aside for later in swampy greens, murky yellows and a few bits of red here and there.     At last, the door swung open and Celestia strode in, regal as ever. She smiled warmly at Rainbow when the door closed behind her. “I see you’ve been productive while you were waiting,” she commented, looking around the marginally tidier room with an approving glint in her eyes.     “Mostly I just wanted to find the costume stuff,” Rainbow clarified with a shrug. “Everything else just got sorted away in the process.”     Celestia smiled knowingly at Rainbow, all to aware of this particular lie. Twilight’s organization was rubbing off on Rainbow in surprising amounts, though Rainbow Dash would refuse to admit it every time it came up. Celestia then turned her eyes to the costume. “Now, then, I believe we have work to do to finish this off, right?”     “Yeah, we do.” Rainbow nodded.     For almost an hour after, the two worked on the costume. Celestia would hover over the fake snakes and hold them onto the jumpsuit while Rainbow dash applied a rough coating of adhesives and molds to hold them in place. Celestia would then work over them with her magic to refine the visual effect. They were making good progress when Celestia began to lose her smile. Rainbow didn’t pay it much mind at first, but over time she began to note the rueful expression crossing her face.     Still she didn’t press the matter until she noticed Celestia becoming somewhat less responsive in her assistance, growing distant from their idle chatter. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. “Hey, you okay?” Rainbow finally asked while reaching a hoof out to Celestia’s shoulder.     “Hm? What do you mean?” Celestia asked, instantly composing herself once she realized Rainbow was onto her.     “I spend enough time around you to know when something’s bugging you, Princess,” Rainbow pointed out with a small gesture of her hoof. “Sad look on your face, not really answering me when I talk to you, general sluggishness. I’m not stupid. So go on, what’s up?”     Celestia blinked before laughing slightly. “Heh, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Very well… it’s the upcoming holiday.” she admitted.     “Huh? What’s wrong with Nightmare Night?” Rainbow asked incredulously, tilting her head in mild confusion.     Celestia sighed softly and shook her head. “It’s less the events of the holiday and more what it’s supposed to represent,” she turned her gaze directly to Rainbow’s. “Tell me, Rainbow Dash; do you know why ponies celebrate Nightmare Night? The story behind it?”     “Well, it’s the night we dress up to evade Nightmare Moon and bring an offering of candy so she doesn’t eat us, supposedly. I don’t believe any of that, personally. To me, it’s just a happy excuse to get free candy and prank ponies.” Rainbow explained her stance casually. She lost whatever mirth was in her voice, however, when Celestia visibly wilted.     “Rainbow… what do you know of the legend of Nightmare Moon?”     “Uh… that she was some evil alicorn that wanted to get rid of daytime in Equestria or something. I don’t really read a lot of that kinda stuff, but she’s said to be the Mare in The Moon now, right?”     Celestia nodded sadly. “Yes, you have the gist of it. Do you remember Nightmare Moon’s origin, though?”     Rainbow shrugged her shoulders noncommittally. “Not especially.”     Celestia nodded solemnly upon hearing this. For a few moments there was a tense silence between them. Then Celestia put on a small smile and turned her eyes back to Rainbow again. “You mentioned pranking ponies?”     Rainbow was only slightly caught off guard by this question. She knew well enough that Celestia liked to joke with or tease her subjects on occasion, though she hadn’t assumed she had an actual interest in pranks of any sort. Nevertheless, she grinned at the question and answered enthusiastically. “Oh, yeah. I pulled them a fair amount back in Cloudsdale. Gonna be pulling some again here in Canterlot when Nightmare Night starts.”     Celestia’s smile grew somewhat and a small, amused breath left her. “Heh. I imagine Twilight gave all sorts of logical arguments as to why you shouldn’t.”     “Yeah she did,” Rainbow huffed indignantly. “She also let me on to the fact she pulled a prank once that, apparently, failed spectacularly. She then refused to tell me about it!” she shook her head in exasperation.     “Ah. I see. It was quite embarrassing for her, that much is true…” a small, delighted glint came to the Princess’ eyes.     “Wait, do you know the details?” Rainbow turned to Celestia hopefully, her tail swinging like that of an excited dog for a few seconds.     Celestia laughed at the cute display, to which Rainbow immediately stopped being cute and pouted. Once Celestia had gotten control of herself, she nodded with a small smirk appearing on her face. “Yes, I know all the juicy little details about that day. I was the target, after all.”     “Wha… wait… Twilight tried to prank you?!” Rainbow asked in shock, her brain trying and failing to make the logical jump. “But she respects you way too much! I don’t see her even contemplating it!”     Celestia’s smirk grew and she winked at Rainbow. “Said prank ‘failed spectacularly’ as you put it, yes?” when Rainbow nodded Celestia’s smirk grew even more. “Well, let’s just say that before this prank of hers, she was a lot more… candid around me.”     Rainbow blinked before snickering behind a hoof. “That’s messed up, dude.”     Celestia sighed in agreement, despite the smile still sticking to her muzzle. “Yes, it is. I admit, perhaps I went a bit too far in turning the tables on her…”     “Care to tell the story?” Rainbow asked giddily before plonking herself onto her haunches and leaning forward eagerly. Celestia giggled and then nodded. How could she say no to that face?     “Alright, very well. But I must stress to you that this story does not leave this room. Understood?”     “Uh-huh!”     “Good, then let’s begin. It was on a saturday, the first of april I believe…”